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An Act To Reduce the Cost of Mental Health Services in Maine
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 34-B MRSA §3004, as amended by PL 2009, c. 147, §12, is further amended to read:
§ 3004.Community Support Systems
 
1. Definitions.   As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the term "community support system" means the entire complex of mental health, rehabilitative, residential and other support services in the community to ensure community integration and the maintenance of a decent quality of life for persons with chronic mental illnessfollowing terms have the following meanings.
 
A.  "Community support system" means the entire complex of mental health, rehabilitative, residential, peer and family support and other support and recovery-related services in the community to ensure community integration and the maintenance of a decent quality of life for adults and children with serious and persistent mental illness and their families.
 
B.  "Immediate family member" means a parent, sibling, adult child, domestic partner or spouse of a person with mental illness.
 
C.  "Peer and family support" means the emotional and physical help and support a person with mental illness or the immediate family member of a person with mental illness provides a person with mental illness.
 
2. General policy.   The department shall develop programs to:
 
A.  Promote and support the development and implementation of comprehensive community support systems to, maximize the use of public and private insurance money to support community support systems and ensure community integration and the maintenance of a decent quality of life for personsadults and children with chronicserious and persistent mental illness in each of the mental health service areas in the State by fostering recovery and the support required for that recovery; and
 
B.  Strengthen the capacity of families, natural networks, peer and family supports, self-help groups and other community resources in order to improve the support for personsand recovery of adults and children with chronicserious and persistent mental illness.
 
3. Duties.   The department shall:
 
A. Provide technical assistance for program development, promote effective coordination with health and other human services and develop new resources in order to improve the availability and accessibility of comprehensive community support services to persons with chronicserious and persistent mental illness;
 
B. Assess service needs, monitor service delivery related to these needs and evaluate the outcome of programs designed to meet these needs in order to enhance the quality and effectiveness of community support services;
 
C. Prepare a report that describes the system of community support services in each of the mental health service regions and statewide.
 
(1) The report must include both existing service resources and deficiencies in the system of services.
 
(2) The report must include an assessment of the roles and responsibilities of mental health agencies, human services agencies, health agencies and involved state departments and must suggest ways in which these agencies and departments can better cooperate to improve the service system for people with chronicserious and persistent mental illness.
 
(3) The report must be prepared biennially and must be submitted to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over human resources by December 15th of every even-numbered year.
 
(4) The committee shall review the report and make recommendations with respect to administrative and funding improvements in the system of community support services to persons with chronicserious and persistent mental illness; and
 
D. Participate in the coordination of services for persons with chronicserious and persistent mental illnesses with local transitional services coordination projects for students with disabilities, as established in Title 20-A, chapter 308, assigning appropriate regional staff and resources as available and necessary in each region to be served by a project.
 
4.  Funding.     Federal mental health services block grant funds must be sought as long as they are available and, if obtained, allocated in their entirety to those peer and family support and natural support services, networks and self-help groups that are offered at no cost, easily accessible and not covered by insurance. Decisions about such funding must be based on the written recommendations of the statewide quality improvement council under section 3609. The funds must be used to sustain existing programs and groups that demonstrate quality of programming and over 1/2 of whose leadership is composed of persons with mental illness or the immediate family members of persons with mental illness.
Sec. 2. 34-B MRSA §3609, as amended by PL 2007, c. 286, §9, is further amended to read:
§ 3609.Statewide quality improvement council
The commissioner shall designate persons to be members to serve on a statewide quality improvement council to advise the commissioner on issues of system implementation that have statewide impact, including, but not limited to, the allocation of federal mental health services block grant funds, as required by section 3004, subsection 4. Documentation of both the spending recommendations made by the council about federal mental health services block grant funds and the final allocation of those funds must be posted on the Department of Health and Human Services publicly accessible website within one month of a final decision or allocation. The commissioner shall appoint such other members to serve on the council as required by law.
 
SUMMARY
This bill updates existing language governing the provisions of community support services for people with serious and persistent mental illness, requires the Department of Health and Human Services to allocate federal child and adult mental health services block grant funds to peer and family supports and requires the department to seek these funds as long as they are available and to document both the recommendations of the statewide quality improvement council for the expenditure of those funds and the allocation that is eventually made.